INSTITUTIONAL | The Largest Retail Investment Platform in the U.K Opens Access to Crypto Products

Hargreaves Lansdown, Britain’s largest retail investment platform, has begun offering eligible clients access to Bitcoin and Ether exchange-traded notes (ETNs), marking a significant shift for a firm that previously warned investors about cryptocurrency risks.

The platform has listed 9 crypto ETNs from issuers including

• BlackRock’s iShares,
• WisdomTree,
• 21Shares,
• Invesco,
• CoinShares and
• Bitwise,

with fees ranging from zero to 0.35%.

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A crypto ETN can give investors Bitcoin price exposure through a traditional securities account without requiring them to manage wallets or hold Bitcoin themselves. But the structure can vary significantly by jurisdiction, including whether the product is actually backed by the underlying crypto.

In other words,

• an ETF generally gives you ownership of a pool of assets;
• an ETN gives you a debt claim on an issuer whose value is tied to an underlying asset or index.

The move follows Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority lifting its 4-year ban on retail access to qualifying crypto ETNs in October 2025.

Hargreaves Lansdown, which serves more than 2 million clients and oversees over $200 billion, is limiting access to investors who meet additional eligibility and risk-assessment requirements.

The reversal highlights how crypto is increasingly moving from specialist exchanges into mainstream wealth-management platforms even as traditional firms continue to classify the products as high risk.

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